This invention relates to a railroad car for hauling motor vehicles, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for loading highway trucks having frames without bodies behind the cabs of the trucks for transportation by railroad.
Heavy trucks used for various purposes are customarily assembled with a cab and a frame extending behind the cab, and then transported, or driven, to another location for a body or "fifth wheel" drive to be fitted onto the frame. The fitting locations may be hundreds or even thousands of miles from the truck assembly plant. It is therefore desirable to transport them by rail in a safe and efficient manner.
Presently many highway trucks are carried away from the assembly plant aboard specially equipped railroad flatcars called "saddleback" cars. These cars are equipped with special pedestals and tiedown means for transporting highway trucks of the type described above. "Saddleback" refers to a method of loading the highway truck onto the flatcar so that each truck's front wheels (except the first truck) are positioned above the rear portion of the highway truck just ahead of it. The result is that the front of each truck is substantially higher than its rear, and because its front end is above the rear portion of the next truck ahead, the trucks "overlap" in effect and more can be loaded aboard a flatcar than if they were all loaded end-to-end with all of their wheels resting on the flatcar's deck. The "first" truck, i.e., the truck whose cab is positioned near the end of the flatcar usually has its front wheels placed atop the pedestals referred to above. The trucks behind it have their front wheels or front axles secured in an elevated position by means of either wheel pedestals resting on the flatcar's deck or by a temporary device attached to the top of the frame of the truck next ahead.
To load, the truck's front end is raised by a special crane that straddles the flatcar and moves along the deck of the flatcar until its front end is positioned in the desired location above the rear of the truck next ahead. The front end of the truck is then lowered and secured, and the straddle crane travels back to the next truck to be loaded, repeating the process until the flatcar is fully loaded. The trucks may be tied down to the deck of the flatcar by chains or by other means.
The "saddleback" system presently used for transporting highway trucks aboard railroad flatcars has several shortcomings. First, during the loading process the straddle crane must pick up the front of the truck. Usually this is done by attaching a chain or cable to the truck's front bumper. In recent years all motor vehicle manufacturers have made a concerted effort to lighten their vehicles in order to either improve fuel economy or increase carrying capacity. Truck bumpers have been lightened in the course of this campaign by reducing the thickness of the metal from which they are made. Obviously this makes the bumpers weaker, and bumper damage during loading and/or unloading of trucks has become a major problem with many complaints by manufacturers and dealers to the rail carriers. Some attempt has been made to lift the truck's front wheel axle instead, but this practice has not become widely adopted, so the bumper damage problem remains.
Another shortcoming of the saddleback system for loading is that the trucks are completely exposed on top of the deck of the flatcar. Thieves and vandals can gain ready access to the trucks by simply climbing onto the freight car. These persons often break a window in the truck cab in order to reach inside, unlock a door and climb inside the cab. Once inside, these persons often steal the radio and/or other equipment, slash the upholstery, or otherwise seriously damage the interior.
Complete exposure also often results in exterior damage to the truck's body and glass from casual vandals who throw missiles such as rocks, slash the tires and/or fire guns at the trucks aboard the open-top flatcar. As with the bumper damage, this greatly displeases the manufacturers and dealers and repairs must be paid for by the rail carriers.
The enclosed rail car that is the subject of this invention solves these problems. First of all, it is difficult for a casual vandal to even ascertain whether the subject car is loaded or not, because it is completely enclosed. From a distance, even a person intending to fire a gun would not know where to aim, since he cannot see the highway trucks, and his odds of hitting a truck are greatly reduced even though his bullets will undoubtedly penetrate the side screens of the car. Missiles thrown at the car by vandals will bounce off the enclosing screens, leaving the truck's glass and body undamaged.
A traveling jack on the bed of the enclosed railroad car picks up the front of each truck in sequence by its front axle instead of its front bumper. This axle is one of the strongest parts of the truck designed and intended as a component that can be used for lifting purposes, and its use eliminates the damage caused by using the bumper as a lifting point. Longitudinally moveable wheel seat rests or platforms eliminate the need for temporary devices attached to the frame of another truck to hold the front of the truck at an elevated position. If desired, the wheel platforms can be shaped to cradle the front wheels of the truck to prevent fore and aft movement and to obviate the need for tiedown chains. The wheel platforms also permit the front wheels of the truck to be elevated to a maximum height, optimizing the number of trucks that can be loaded abroad a railroad car of a given length.
Sloped "curbs" located on the outer sides of the car deck serve to guide the rear wheels of the truck during loading and unloading, maintaining correct positioning of the truck on the car deck throughout each of these processes.
Recently railroad cars have been developed that are longer and higher to satisfy a need for more efficient damage-free transportation of motor vehicles. One such railroad car of 89-foot 4-inch nominal length has two decks for transporting automobiles, with clearance above each deck having a height of about six feet. The sides, top and ends are enclosed to prevent pilferage, vandalism and road hazards while the automobiles are in transit by rail. Such a railroad car could haul as many as seven (7) automobiles on each deck.
An object of this invention is to adapt such an 89-foot railroad car, or other railroad car of extraordinary height (defined as having an inside dimension of about 12 feet, or more, in height from the surface of the bottom deck to the roof) to the task of hauling large trucks efficiently. Because of the height of the truck cabs, it is not possible to carry them on two decks, and because of their length, it is not possible to carry more than two or three, depending on their length. For example, using an 89-foot railroad car to haul trucks that have a 24-foot frame behind an 8-foot cab, three trucks having a total length of 96 feet cannot be accommodated, and just two trucks having a total length of 67 feet would leave an empty space of 22 feet. It would not be practical to always search for another shorter truck to haul with the two larger ones in order to utilize all of the space in the railroad car, and if the railroad car is of extraordinary height, such as one built for this purpose or converted from a double-deck car to a single deck, there would also be a lot of overhead space inside the car not utilized.